Netbooks vs. Laptops

[Aristotle]

Netbooks are the hot item in the computer hardware industry right now. Ultraportability and a low price are a great combination. They are certainly encroaching on the laptop market, as netbooks handle internet, email, web, movies, and office productivity software as well or better than laptops.

For a more detailed comparison:

Netbooks vs. Laptops

What do you think of the Netbook phenomenon? I think it is great for games like Threshold. You can play Threshold on a netbook, but not much else.

[Rosuav]

Ha!

If you are reading this article, you are probably well acquainted with laptops. You may even be reading this on one right now.

I am indeed. What's more, I read the article from a work laptop, in a company that repairs and sells exclusively laptops.

The term "netbook" annoys me a bit, though. Always makes me think someone meant to type "notebook" but got it wrong. *twiddle*

[Dalaena]

I'd always heard them called mini laptops.

[Pae]

But can they handle thresh? That's the real question.

I intend on purchasing one as a second 'laptop' when the need comes. Right now we have both a PC laptop / Mac laptop. The PC laptop has from day 1 been a hassle. It's been in for warranty repairs a number of times now (nothing major) and the battery life was atrocious after a year.

I know once that warranty up there's no way I'll pay to get it fixed. A netbook however, the cost is about 50%. If it stops working after warranty, it's so much of an easier pill to swallow.

And in looking at my habits, what would I need a netbook for? Oh right! Checking email, internet, thresh, and writing. I see no reason not too.

Also Netbooks will become much more popular if the Google apps continue to grow as they have been.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Pae
But can they handle thresh? That's the real question.

Without a doubt. That's one of the many awesome things about netbooks.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Pae
Right now we have both a PC laptop / Mac laptop. The PC laptop has from day 1 been a hassle. It's been in for warranty repairs a number of times now (nothing major) and the battery life was atrocious after a year.

You can say a "Mac laptop" and we know you got it from Apple, but a "PC laptop" could be from anywhere... did you get a bad brand? Was it a Toshiba TE2100? :|

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Aristotle
Without a doubt [they'll handle Thresh]. That's one of the many awesome things about netbooks.

Netbooks bridge the gap between high-end mobile phones (think iPhone) and laptops (think Toshiba Portege). Someone's already run Android (a mobile phone OS) on a netbook, and found that Google's code was designed to slide up the market in that way. So what you have is a tiny thing that can, just like a full notebook, access Threshold... hmm, I wonder how long it will be before the Googlephone comes with a specific Threshold app.... this could be interesting. Anyone want to buy me one so I can look at porting RosMud?

[Theairoh]

I probably wouldn't buy one of these.

I HATE working on desktops. But I still prefer a laptop that can do ANYTHING I want it to do anywhere, not just what I NEED it to do.

But it's a nice alternative to those who want their graphical/power heavy machines to be desktops so they don't have to dust out their pocket books next month. Laptops also tend to choke out a bit more on the power-heavy side of things, cost ridiculous amounts, and become more and more difficult to upgrade as time goes on. But timeless things like word processing, coding, surfing the web, and what have you don't really need constant upgrading.

[Bael]

Actually, I've been doing some research into netbooks as of late due to the potential interest into getting myself one down the road... and I found a couple of interesting ones that have sprouted up recently:

Lenovo S10 - this is the current leader on my shopping list for 3 reasons. 1) it doesn't use a crippled unix/linux distro... it comes with Windows XP Home Edition, IE - It can run anything a normal computer would. (Gmud/Rosmud/Mushclient/whatever). 2) you can very easily upgrade the ram on it if you want. an 3) you can very easily upgrade the hard drive on it (it comes with an 80 GB 5400rpm laptop HDD, but you literally pop a panel off the bottom, slide the drive out and you can upgrade it if you want). The downside to this one is that it doesn't have a solid state hard-drive. But in exchange you have 80GB to use for whatever.

HP Mini - Much like the Lenovo above it runs Windows XP Home Edition. This one has a solid state HDD, standard with 8GB, optional 16GB for $25 upgrade.

What obviously makes these appealing is the use of XP. This would make it an ideal "upgrade" path into the realm of laptops for someone who generally only uses their computer for webstuffs, email and muds. The only downside is the lack of a disc-based media drive, so you'd have to chunk out $50-70 for a good external dvd/cdrom... if you care for one.

[Ismenia]

I thought Notebooks and Laptops were the same thing! Thanks for the info. Too bad I just bought my laptop though. I probably could have gotten away with a Notebook.